Kazuki Yamada / L'Orchestre de la Suisse Romande - Russian Dances (2016) [DSD64 - DSF]

In an ideal situation, football players perform their “dance” on a grass pitch – as once did the “white ballet” of Real Madrid, led by its soloists Puskás and Di Stéfano. But surely not on the ballet stage! Definitely not. However, not only was Dmitri Shostakovich (1906 – 1975) passionate about music, he was also a great football fan. More specifically, a fan of his hometown club Zenit St. Petersburg. The Russian language has a more intense description for the concept of the “fan” – one is considered “bolejet” (literally = ill) for one’s team: one shares the fever. And as a fan of Zenit, Shostakovich had his fair share of downright hard times: “Being a supporter is at times more frustrating than pleasurable.” He was often a guest at the stadium: even when Leningrad was under siege from the German army, he attended lower-league matches whenever possible. In 1929, Shostakovich composed his first, three-act ballet to a scenic design by film director Alexander Ivanovsky. Entitled The Golden Age, it portrays an away-game of a Soviet football team in an unnamed western city at the time of an industrial exhibition. During the away-game of the Soviet team, plenty of bizarre events take place in the ideologically “false” world, which allow for the inclusion of numerous dance interludes and parodies

Tracklist

Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893)
Swan Lake Suite, Op. 20a, TH 219
01. I. Scene - Moderato
02. II. Waltz
03. III. Dance of the Swans - Allegro moderato
04. IV. Scene - Andante
05. V. Hungarian Dance (Czardas) - Moderato assai
06. VI. Spanish Dance - Allegro non troppo
07. VII. Neapolitan Dance - Allegro moderato
08. VIII. Mazurka
Alexander Glazunov (1865-1936)
09. Concert Waltz No. 1 in D Major, Op. 47
10. Concert Waltz No. 2 in F Major, Op. 51
Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975)
The Golden Age Suite, Op. 22a
11. I. Introduction - Allegro non troppo
12. II. Adagio
13. III. Polka - Allegretto
14. IV. Dance - Allegro
Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971)
15. Circus Polka